november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 81
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
JAMES COTTEE
FIELD NOTES
This time I woke to a really slow, stuttery take on the left hand rod. As
I approached, the bobbin dropped back, and once again I wound down
into the slack. This time the fish was just slowly plodding to my right
but back towards me at the same time. I kept gaining and gaining line;
it almost seemed like it didn t know what was going on until it surfaced
15 yards from the swim over the shallow water. With that, there was a
big wallow in the water as it powered off, stripping a ton of line from
the spool, which took me a further ten minutes to retrieve before finally
scooping the net under what looked like a decent fish in the dark.
I anchored up the net and ran back up to the bivvy to grab my phone to
get a better look.
I genuinely couldn t believe my eyes when I looked down into that net.
There she was, one of the ones I truly wanted from the lake and without
doubt one of the oldest ones left from the original stock.
FREE LINE
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